Darkfallen
Darkfallen are a unique kind of undead blood elf in service to the Scourge. Introduction During Illidan's failed campaign on Northrend, Arthas shattered Illidan's forces, took the most powerful of Prince Kael'thas' blood elves, and transformed them into darkfallen. Most of the characters identified as darkfallen are also currently members of the San'layn faction, though exactly how the groups relate to one another is uncertain. What is certain is that the San'layn oversee the Scourge's operations throughout Azeroth,http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/icecrown-raid.xml most of the times leading groups of non-darkfallen, such as vrykul. Elder Ko'nani of The Kalu'ak states that "The Dark One rides forth again with his San'layn..." showing that they are an important part of the Scourge offensive. It can also mean that the San'layn were once part of a previous attack. The only apparent darkfallen not tagged as San'layn are High Priest Andorath in Borean Tundra, Prince Navarius in Zul'Drak, Prince Taldaram in Ahn'kahet, Dragonblight and Prince Sandoval in Icecrown. The greatest concentrations of darkfallen are located in the Temple City of En'kilah in northeastern Borean Tundra, and in The Crimson Hall inside Icecrown Citadel. Those are the only places where non-named darkfallen appear. Appearance The darkfallen appear a lot like their living forms, the blood elves, except their skin tones are usually green or grey, instead of the soft tones of the blood elves skins. They also have long pointed ears, and an unusual kind of eyebrows, which extend beyond their faces. Culture The darkfallen dress primarily in red and black, like the blood elves. They are vampiric in nature, especially in the case of the Blood Princes (also known as Blood Lords), who are known to consume the flesh, blood, and souls of their victims. Besides their clothing and vampiric habits, the darkfallen, just like the other members of the Scourge, don't have their own culture. Instead, the Scourge takes architecture, technology, and physical prowess from assimilated cultures,The Decree of the Scourge such as the nerubians.War of the Spider (History of Warcraft) They are often seen amongst groups of other Scourge races, such as the vrykul or nerubians. Some darkfallen have demonstrated shape-shifting abilities: Prince Valanar was revealed in the quest to have taken the form of Counselor Talbot so he could infiltrate Valiance Keep, and Tenris Mirkblood when using his Blood Mirror ability. Notable darkfallen Other darkfallen * - Retainer of Prince Valanar. * - Retainer of Prince Valanar. Trivia Vampire inspiration The Art of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King includes two pieces of concept art for the race; the first, titled "High Elf Nosferatu", is clearly inspired by Count Orlok from the classic German silent film Nosferatu, while the second depicts what appears to be a high elf with stitched-together flesh, dressed in elegant armor and wielding wing-like arrays of shields across his arms, which double as weapon racks, holding a number of blades. The darkfallen, specifically the Princes, appear to be strongly inspired by the portrayals of vampires in both film and fiction. They have bat-like ears, wear cloaks with high collars, and wear masks with fang patterns over their mouths Their vampiric nature, especially in the case of the Princes, who are known to consume the flesh, blood, and souls of their victims and display mannerisms and characteristics strongly associated with the classic vampires of film and fiction like Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula. Additional references have also been made to the Castlevania series of video games by Konami. Vrykul origin Early reports (of unknown accuracy) about the WotLK Alpha implied that what is now the darkfallen were vrykul wearing the Malefic Raimenthttp://www.wowwiki.com/index.php?title=Prince_Keleseth&oldid=798750. Later, but before they got their current model, they were changed to elves wearing the Malefic Raiment.Prince Valanar's old model Chris Metzen said at BlizzCon 2007 that the vrykul were vampiric, something that is not visited in-game. It may be that the darkfallen were the vampiric vrykul, but the idea that they were vrykul was scrapped. Speculation Race The darkfallen were never confirmed as a race. The World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary listed "Darkfallen" as one of the races it was going to give lore on, but Darkfallen was never added. The Darkfallen Bloodbearers and Darkfallen Deathblades are the only creatures in Wrath of the Lich King that have this name, and they are part of the San'layn, which is made up a group of vampire-like undead. It can therefore be speculated that the San'layn are of the darkfallen race. It is also possible that darkfallen is merely a common name for them, with San'layn being the actual race name (in the same way that the quel'dorei are known as high elves or the sin'dorei as blood elves). It is still unknown if every undead blood elf is considered a darkfallen, or if only a small group of them are members of this race. If any undead elf is a darkfallen, it is safe to say that Sylvannas Windrunner, her dark rangers, Dar'Khan Drathir, and even the blood elf death knights are darkfallen too. Otherwise, the term may only apply to the undead elves who posses the vampiric traits. References External links ru:Мракопадшие Category:Darkfallen Category:Wrath of the Lich King